Photo: Robert Lamb · CC BY-SA 2.0Norwich records more violent crime per head than 87% of UK towns
At 2 per 1,000 residents, bicycle theft in Norwich runs well past the 0.9 of a typical town its size (405 recorded in the 12 months to August 2026). The grade is D, built on crimes police recorded inside the town’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026: #48 of 51 in Norfolk. In a usual year, 42.7 violent and sexual offences and 14.8 incidents of burglary, vehicle crime and damage are logged per 1,000 inhabitants.
Crimes and reports per 1,000 residents (Census 2021) a year, September 2023 to August 2026.
What stands out about safety in Norwich
One ward carries much of the rate
Mancroft ward recorded 4,085 of Norwich’s 25,665 violent and sexual offences in three years: 128.2 per 1,000 of its own residents a year. Across the rest of Norwich the figure is 37.6. Where in Norwich ↓
About the middle for a city its size
Of 44 UK towns and cities of 141,000 to 271,000 people, Norwich has the 18th lowest rate of graded crime: lower than Barking and Dagenham, Hackney and Hammersmith and Fulham, higher than Luton, Reading and Ipswich. Towns its size ↓
Neighbourhood ranks
27% of Norwich’s residents live in a neighbourhood ranked in the highest-crime 20% of England (Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain), and 24% in the lowest-crime 30%. Neighbourhood ranks ↓
Written from the police.uk and government data on this page. Figures are crimes police recorded, not convictions.
The grade: D for Norwich
A firm grade. Built on 34,566 graded crimes over three years. The grade adds violent and sexual offences and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident and ranks Norwich against every UK town of 1,000 or more.
Per resident, against all UK towns; beside it, how it compares with towns its size.
Police in Norwich identify a suspect more often than across UK towns
No suspect was identified for 46% of Norwich’s burglaries, vehicle crimes and criminal damage, against 69% across UK towns, and for 9% of violent and sexual offences against 19%. Most violent cases close as “unable to prosecute” (67% here), usually because the victim doesn’t support a prosecution. About 12% of violent and 12% of household crimes reached court.
The latest outcome police.uk shows for each crime recorded in the first of the three years (September 2023 to August 2024), so most cases have closed. 11,761 crimes.
Lowest recorded crime in Thorpe St Andrew North West, Old Catton and Sprowston West and Eaton; highest in Mancroft
| Ward | Residents | Violent | Homes & vehicles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thorpe St Andrew North West | 7,368 | 14.8 | 6.3 | |
| Old Catton and Sprowston West | 8,491 | 16.2 | 5 | |
| Eaton | 10,117 | 16.1 | 6.7 | |
| New Costessey | 6,028 | 16.3 | 8 | |
| Sprowston East | 8,767 | 19.4 | 6.2 | |
| Sprowston Central | 5,344 | 20.6 | 6.1 | |
| Thorpe St Andrew South East | 6,799 | 25 | 9.7 | |
| Hellesdon South East | 5,444 | 28.7 | 8.4 | |
| University | 14,550 | 29.3 | 10.1 | |
| Nelson | 10,437 | 28.8 | 11.9 | |
| Sewell | 10,350 | 30.5 | 15.3 | |
| Hellesdon North West | 5,681 | 37.6 | 9.2 | |
| Town Close | 10,190 | 36.7 | 15.7 | |
| Lakenham | 10,679 | 39.8 | 14.2 | |
| Bowthorpe | 9,640 | 40.8 | 13.6 | |
| Catton Grove | 11,178 | 43 | 14.4 | |
| Old Costessey | 3,459 | 41.5 | 18.8 | |
| Wensum | 12,730 | 48.5 | 19.4 | |
| Crome | 11,990 | 54.9 | 17.2 | |
| Mile Cross | 11,196 | 53.6 | 18.7 | |
| Thorpe Hamlet | 9,686 | 111.9 | 31 | |
| Mancroft | 10,620 | 128.2 | 40.8 |
| At or near | Reports | Mostly |
|---|---|---|
| Supermarkets | 3,231 | 62% shoplifting & theft |
| Car parks | 2,631 | 33% violent |
| Shopping areas | 2,142 | 51% shoplifting & theft |
| Petrol stations | 1,751 | 60% shoplifting & theft |
| Nightclubs | 1,534 | 46% violent |
| Sports and recreation grounds | 551 | 36% violent |
| College and university buildings | 176 | 53% violent |
| Police stations | 163 | 39% drugs, public order & other |
| Bus and coach stations | 144 | 34% violent |
| Hospitals | 94 | 57% violent |
A ward’s rate counts crimes where they happened, not where victims live, so Mancroft records 3.4× the violent crime per resident of the rest of Norwich. police.uk places each crime at an anonymous map point; some are named for the kind of place (a supermarket, a car park), and each row adds up every place of that kind in Norwich. We show only these, never streets or homes.
Crimes per 1,000 residents a year by council ward (the part of each ward inside Norwich’s built-up area), September 2023 to August 2026. Beside it, the public places police.uk named most often.
What police recorded in the last 12 months
Against the typical town its size, Norwich runs highest on bicycle theft (2 per 1,000 against 0.9), shoplifting (14.1 per 1,000 against 10.3) and criminal damage & arson (8.9 per 1,000 against 7.5). Burglary and vehicle crime sit below it.
Show as a table
| Category | In the grade | Reports | Per 1,000 | Typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Violence & sexual offences | Violent | 8,105 | 40.4 | 38.6 |
| Anti-social behaviour | not graded | 3,103 | 15.5 | 17.5 |
| Shoplifting | not graded | 2,831 | 14.1 | 10.3 |
| Criminal damage & arson | Home & vehicle | 1,786 | 8.9 | 7.5 |
| Public order | not graded | 1,429 | 7.1 | 7.4 |
| Other theft | not graded | 1,118 | 5.6 | 6.6 |
| Drugs | not graded | 617 | 3.1 | 3.8 |
| Vehicle crime | Home & vehicle | 535 | 2.7 | 4.9 |
| Burglary | Home & vehicle | 468 | 2.3 | 3.4 |
| Other crime | not graded | 462 | 2.3 | 2.1 |
| Bicycle theft | not graded | 405 | 2 | 0.9 |
| Possession of weapons | Violent | 252 | 1.3 | 1.1 |
| Robbery | Violent | 197 | 1 | 1.4 |
| Theft from the person | not graded | 157 | 0.8 | 0.7 |
“Violent” is police.uk’s violence and sexual offences (which includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury), robbery and possession of weapons. Anti-social behaviour isn’t a crime category; shoplifting and other theft happen mostly in shops and town centres rather than to residents, so neither counts in the grade.
September 2025 to August 2026, per 1,000 residents. The tick on each bar is the typical (median) town among UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more.
Crime in Norwich per 1,000 residents
A crime isn’t a victim: one person can report several, and crimes in a town centre often involve visitors rather than residents.
And about 14 burglaries, vehicle crimes or acts of criminal damage, plus 22 shoplifting and theft reports, in the 12 months to August 2026. Each dot is one resident; each coloured dot is one recorded crime.
27% of Norwich residents live in one of England’s highest-crime neighbourhoods
24% of residents live in the lowest-crime 30% of England’s neighbourhoods, and 27% in the highest-crime 20%. The crime domain scores the risk of violence, burglary, theft and criminal damage where people live, so it can read differently from the town-wide rate, which counts crimes where they happened.
Norwich’s residents by the crime decile of their neighbourhood (LSOA, about 1,500 people) in the English Indices of Deprivation 2025 (crime domain), where 1 is the highest-crime 10% of England’s neighbourhoods and 10 the lowest.
Norwich is 18th of 44 UK towns of 141,000 to 271,000
| # | Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Shops & theft | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond upon Thames London | 192,888 | 18.8 | 17.9 | 15.9 | C+ |
| … | ||||||
| 15 | Luton Bedfordshire | 233,524 | 36.7 | 17.7 | 17.5 | C− |
| 16 | Reading Berkshire | 203,789 | 39.6 | 15.5 | 28 | C− |
| 17 | Ipswich Suffolk | 151,566 | 41 | 14.9 | 20.1 | C− |
| 18 | Norwich Norfolk | 200,744 | 42.7 | 14.8 | 23 | D |
| 19 | Bournemouth Dorset | 196,453 | 37.1 | 20.4 | 19.8 | D |
| 20 | Telford Shropshire | 156,890 | 44.8 | 13 | 17.6 | D |
| 21 | Swansea West Glamorgan | 170,090 | 42.6 | 15.6 | 21.1 | D |
| … | ||||||
| 44 | Westminster London | 203,571 | 81.4 | 42.3 | 254.6 | D− |
Safety letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
Graded crime per 1,000 residents a year, September 2023 to August 2026, counting from the least: towns ranked near Norwich, and others in Norfolk.
Violent crime held steady over the year
“Towns its size” pools all UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more that police.uk covers each month (Greater Manchester has no data).
Rolling three-month rate, per 1,000 residents a year. In the 12 months to August 2026 against the 12 before: violent +1% (towns its size +2%), homes and vehicles -6% (towns its size -5%), shoplifting and theft -6% (towns its size -3%), anti-social behaviour -7% (towns its size -2%).
10 people died in collisions on Norwich’s roads in 2021–2025
Police recorded 1,599 collisions with injuries inside Norwich in five years, in which 10 people died (6 were pedestrians and 3 were cyclists). 387 people were killed or seriously injured: 97 on foot and 93 on a bicycle.
That is 1.0 deaths per 100,000 residents a year, about the same as the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (1.1, 210 towns).
Counting serious injuries too, Norwich had 38.6 people killed or seriously injured per 100,000 residents a year, above the median for UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more (30.3). 25% of them were on foot, against 31% across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more.
Casualties are counted where the collision happened, not where people lived: a main road through town adds through-traffic, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Seriously injured uses the Department for Transport’s adjusted figures, which even out the police forces’ different ways of recording injuries. There’s no national rate here: more than half of road deaths in England and Wales (58%) happen outside every town’s built-up area. Source: DfT road casualty statistics (STATS19), 2021–2025.
Collisions police recorded inside Norwich’s built-up area, 2021–2025. Described here; not part of the Safety Grade.
Crime in the places around Norwich
| Town | People | Violent | Homes & vehicles | Safety |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norwich | 200,744 | 42.7 | 14.8 | D |
| Cringleford | 4,686 | 28.6 | 8.5 | C+ |
| Thorpe End | 1,173 | 11.1 | 2.6 | A+ |
| Costessey | 2,608 | 16.6 | 7 | B+ |
| Horsham St Faith | 1,051 | 13 | 5.7 | A |
| Spixworth | 3,418 | 11.1 | 3.6 | A |
| Rackheath | 1,761 | 46.9 | 11.7 | D |
| Taverham and Drayton | 14,989 | 13.7 | 3.7 | A |
Norwich records more graded crime per resident than 6 of its 7 neighbours; only Rackheath records more. Cringleford, 3.2 miles away, records 28.6 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 residents a year (3-year average), against Norwich’s 42.7.
Per 1,000 residents a year, the same three years. Tap a town for its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Big public sites inside the boundary. police.uk counted 94 at or near a hospital over three years. They count in Norwich’s rate, as they would for any town that has them.
- Where crimes happen, not where victims live. police.uk places each crime at a point near where it happened. Town centres with shops, stations, a hospital and nightlife record more crime per resident, and residents of nearby villages who come in to shop or go out are part of that count.
- Bigger towns record more per resident. Across UK towns, recorded crime per resident rises steeply with size, more than in the U.S., so a city’s grade sits low against the whole UK. The “towns its size” figures show where Norwich sits among towns like it; they are context and don’t change the grade.
- Points are approximate. police.uk moves each point to the nearest of a set of anonymous map points, so crimes near the edge of the built-up area can fall either side of it.
Questions about safety in Norwich
Is Norwich safe?
Police recorded 42.7 violent and sexual offences and 14.8 burglaries, vehicle crimes and acts of criminal damage per 1,000 residents a year over the three years to August 2026 (police.uk, inside Norwich’s built-up area). That earns a D for safety: less crime per resident than 14% of UK towns. Among 44 UK towns of 141,000 to 271,000 people, Norwich is 18th from the least crime.
What are the safest areas of Norwich?
By council ward, Thorpe St Andrew North West, Old Catton and Sprowston West and Eaton record the least violent and household crime per resident: 14.8, 16.2 and 16.1 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 a year (3-year average), against 128.2 in Mancroft.
Is crime going up in Norwich?
In the 12 months to August 2026, against the 12 months before, violent crime held steady, burglary, vehicle crime and damage fell 6%, shoplifting and theft fell 6% and anti-social behaviour fell 7%. Across UK towns and cities of 50,000 or more, violent crime held steady.
Is Norwich city centre safe at night?
police.uk placed 1,534 crimes and reports at or near nightclubs in three years, 46% of them violent, and Mancroft ward records 128.2 violent and sexual offences per 1,000 of its residents a year. Over the last two years, violent crime peaked in July and was lowest in February.
What is the most common crime in Norwich?
Violence & sexual offences: 8,105 in the 12 months to August 2026, which in police.uk includes harassment, stalking and assault without injury. Next came shoplifting (2,831) and criminal damage & arson (1,786), with 3,103 reports of anti-social behaviour.
Sources: data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025, crime domain by LSOA (residents from ONS Census 2021) · Department for Transport road casualty statistics (STATS19), collisions 2021–2025, points inside the built-up-area boundary · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.